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BRYON PAUL MCCARTNEY
Tell us a little about your background... where you are from ? I was born, raised and educated in the Midwest USA, Ohio to be exact. I grew up in a small town on the shores of Lake Erie, one of the Great Lakes, and my grandparents owned a large home at the edge of the forest. I spent most of my youth playing in the natural surroundings - hiking, fishing, camping, hunting, swimming, boating, etc. My grandfather was a carpenter and I would spend time with him in his wood shop learning to make things out of wood. I suppose that was the beginning of my creative explorations. Later I went to university to study computers, but I took a drawing class by mistake and discovered that I wanted to be a graphic designer, so I changed my direction and focused on art. After university I moved to Chicago where I worked mainly as a publication and web designer and photo retoucher/compositor. I worked with many top photographers in Chicago on various projects and that taught me a lot about working with images and running a studio, something I didn't know at the time that would later come in handy. I was successful in corporate communications, branding and multimedia and worked my way up to creative director at Unilever. I lived and worked in Chicago for about twelve years and then had the opportunity to move to Switzerland where I took a job as a creative director for an online design agency. I have lived near ZŸrich for the past eight years.
When have you starting photography and under what circumstances ? About five years before moving to Switzerland, around 1995, I bought my first 35mm film camera. Mostly I only used it to take vacation photos and to take pictures of different patterns or textures that I could use in my graphic design work. When I came to Switzerland, I then bought my first digital camera because I was traveling a lot in Europe and wanted to share my travels with family and friends back home. As time went on, I was getting a lot of comments from my friends about my photos and, eventually, a friend of mine started a magazine in ZŸrich and she asked me to shoot some articles. I enjoyed doing the articles, but I wasn't all that excited about the topics. A few months later, my wife found an article in Conde Nast about photography workshops in Tuscany. In the Summer of 2003, I signed up for a class with Andreas Bitesnich without having any idea who he was. Of course, up to that point, I had never shot with a model, let alone done any nudes. I needed to put a portfolio together for the class, so I put some ads up at the local Uni and found some models to work with. By the time I went to Tuscany I had enough images to show Andreas, and he gave me some really great feedback and encouraged me to keep shooting nudes, so I did.
How would you describe your photos for someone who's never seen them ? I suppose that depends on the topic, but In all my work, I like to keep things simple, I am not into complicated sets or photographic storytelling, I try to focus more on the moment and keep a direct connection with the model. I think all my images share a similar approach to using light. I tend to favor lighting setups that allow me to work with light and shadow to create contrasts and unique forms. I guess a lot of my work tends to be a bit darker/moodier because of this.
Have you got any standard or paragon in the world of photography ? If so, which are they ? There are certainly many photographers whom I look up to and respect. I admire most those photographers who are courageous enough to do something new and different, and manage to find success in doing so. That is my main goal as a photographer, to find success in my work through originality and by offering something different.
In your opinion, what purpose does your photography serve ? For me, I enjoy making these images a great deal and I want to share my pleasure, what I see in these captured moments, with others.
What is your view on the current art market and how do you see photography within this ? I am certainly no expert in the matter. I think everything is changing with the tide of technology and internet accessibility. Practically everyone is a photographer or at least has a camera phone, so where it used to be that you had to have technical expertise to be a photographer, these days anyone can capture images and get them noticed on Flickr or whatever site is the flavor of the day. People are not motivated to buy a piece of art when you can download a copy to your computer desktop or capture it on your cellphone. Art used to be more precious, more appreciated, but it now seems to be devolving more or less into home decoration. Photography suffers greatly from all of this. I've lost count of how many times someone has contacted me about someone else using my photos as their own work on Flickr or similar sites. Protecting your work from mis-use is only one of the many things you need to worry about, you can't even put your images on most websites without unwittingly granting them the right to do whatever they want with your images, including allowing them to be used in advertising campaigns, it's crazy.
What's the strangest request you've had ? I had a male client who liked to dress in women's clothing and be photographed, and the whole experience got very strange when he became sexually excited during the shoot, the more I clicked the worse it got, I'll spare you the details.
What kind of images interest you at the moment ? At the moment I am really trying to come back to my roots in fine art nude photography, focusing more on classical and dance images. If you know any ballerinas, please send them my way.
What projects are you working on now ? At the moment, I am processing some images from the past four years to include in a book that features my favorite dancer, Giulia Piolanti, it will be called "The Girl Who Could Fly". I am also working on a new website and I am teaching photography classes and workshops.
What makes you happy ? Chocolate.
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